{"id":263859,"date":"2025-11-05T18:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T18:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/263859\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T18:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T18:18:08","slug":"the-art-world-reacts-to-zohran-mamdanis-win-as-mayor-of-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/263859\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art World Reacts to Zohran Mamdani’s Win as Mayor of New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFollowing Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u2018s historic win as Mayor of New York City, the art world has weighed in, with many artists, curators, and critics based in the city\u2014and even some situated in locales beyond New York\u2014responding to his victory with hope and joy. A few others, meanwhile, questioned whether his leadership would positively impact the city\u2019s art scene.<\/p>\n

\n\tSiddartha Mitter, a New York\u2013based critic who is on the team seeing through Koyo Kouoh\u2019s vision for the 2026 Venice Biennale, said in an Instagram post that Mamdani\u2019s win marked a \u201cremarkable moment, when NYC proposes not only a grounded rebuttal to Trumpism but a beacon of civic renewal for the world at large.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Carrie<\/p>\n

\n\tOn her Instagram Story, artist Aria Dean posted an image of a New York Post cover that termed New York \u201cThe Red Apple\u201d and featured an illustration of Mamdani holding a red hammer and sickle. Alongside the image, Dean added three smiling emojis with starry eyes.<\/p>\n

\n\tArtists were central to Mamdani\u2019s campaign before it went mainstream. As Artnet News previously reported<\/a>, Mamdani was popular among the Downtown crowd in New York, with dealer Elyse Derosia co-hosting an event for him back in March ahead of the primary. Artnet reported that Martine Syms, Ser Serpas, Michael Stipe, and others were in attendance, and quoted Dean as saying, \u201cI think his platform resonates because most people \u2018downtown\u2019 are feeling the squeeze of a New York City unconcerned with its working class. I don\u2019t really know why it took so long to beat the right wing allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs ARTnews previously reported<\/a>, artists such as Sanya Kantarovsky, Tauba Auerbach, Salman Toor, Chloe Wise, and more donated to Mamdani\u2019s campaign. On Tuesday, November 4, as results for Mamdani rolled in, Toor re-posted his 2007 portrait of a young Mamdani<\/a> to his Instagram Story.<\/p>\n

\n\tReferring to Mamdani\u2019s repeated calls for equal rights for Palestinians and an end to Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, Morgan Bassichis, an artist whose theatrical show Can I Be Frank?\u00a0gained acclaim, wrote on Instagram, \u201cThe New York we cherish won. Now, we keep organizing, until we win it all, including a Free Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGenerally, institutions and galleries didn\u2019t officially weigh in on Mamdani. The exception was El Museo del Barrio, which posted to its Instagram, \u201cWe look forward to working alongside you and your administration to champion the arts, amplify underrepresented voices, and ensure that culture remains at the heart of New York City\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the few institutional directors to opine on the matter was the Americas Society\u2019s Aim\u00e9 Iglesias Lukin, who wrote on Instagram while the polls were open that she was \u201cexpecting to celebrate NY as the best USA thing.\u201d She wore a Mamdani sticker.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso during the voting period, photographer Laurie Simmons praised the efforts of groups such as Gays for Mamdani and Moms for Mamdani, writing, \u201cI could go on and on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOthers took a more cautious tone. Jerry Saltz, a Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning art critic, praised Mamdani on social media while also writing, \u201cThe great thing about voting for Mamdani will be that we can call him out if he does wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNot everyone was happy with a Democratic Socialist Mayor. Jerry Gogosian, a popular market-oriented Instagram account, put it bluntly: \u201cMamdani is bad for the art world. You guys complain now when you have to split the price of a painting 50-50 with your art dealer. Wait until you get those socialist taxes on top of it.\u201d The post has gained more than 500 likes (as well as some debate in the comments section).<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough the election was a local one, it was still watched by people outside New York. Margot Norton, chief curator of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in California, wrote on Instagram that Mamdani was \u201cthe first mayoral candidate in NYC I\u2019ve ever seen that has integrity, and a platform I can stand behind. This is the election where the power of the people can outweigh the people in power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn his Instagram Story, Silver Lion\u2013winning artist Ali Cherri, who is based in Paris, wrote, \u201cCongrats to my New Yorker friends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following Zohran Mamdani\u2018s historic win as Mayor of New York City, the art world has weighed in, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[121934,76,354,355,49,48,356,75,5148],"class_list":{"0":"post-263859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art-and-politics","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}